BREMERTON — An environmental cleanup is slated for a shuttered Bremerton gas station where pollutants seeped from underground storage tanks.

The state Department of Ecology is finalizing an agreement with past and present owners of the "Newman's Chevron" station at the corner of Sixth Street and Naval Avenue that will begin the cleanup process.

The agreed order will require Chevron Environmental Management Company (the arm of the oil company that oversees remediation projects), former property owner Nordic Properties Inc. and current owner Victory Business Park LLC, to investigate contamination on the site, study cleanup options and propose a cleanup plan. The public can comment on the draft agreed order through Jan. 22.

Jim Reed with Victory Business Park said he is eager to have any lingering pollution removed from the site so he can move forward with plans to open a business there. His group acquired the parcel in 2012.

"We'll get it up and running and make it part of the community again," Reed said Friday.

A service station operated on the 2021 Sixth St. property from 1928 to 2008, switching hands several times over the decades, according to the draft agreed order. Gasoline and oil leaks were reported at the site in 1990, when six underground tanks were dug out and replaced. Some contaminated soil was excavated at the time but a "large quantity" was left in place because there was concern that removing the soil could destabilize the building, according to an Ecology fact sheet.

Additional soil samples taken in 2000 and 2009 found petroleum hydrocarbons at levels exceeding the standard for cleanup under the state's Model Toxics Control Act. A full investigation into the extent of the pollution was never completed.

Ecology expects that investigation to be carried out this spring, with a proposed cleanup action plan to be submitted sometime next summer. Ecology spokesman Larry Altose said removing pollution left over from underground storage tanks can take months or years, depending on the complexity of the site.

The Newman's Chevron is one of 110 Kitsap County properties on Ecology's list of Leaking Underground Storage Tanks. Cleanup has already begun at 83 of the sites, while 13 await cleanup. Other sites are being monitored or require no further action.